Who Can Hold the Sea: The U.S. Navy in the Cold War, 1945–1960

This excellent naval history elucidates how the atomic bomb and nuclear power shaped the geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Historian and literary agent Hornfischer (The Fleet at Flood Tide), who died in 2021, unearths fascinating anecdotes, noting, for instance, that the first test of atomic bombs against warships involved 200 pigs, some of whom “wore standard U.S. Navy antiflash suits and were smeared with antiflash lotion.” He also draws enlightening character sketches of key players including diplomat George F. Kennan, whose “Long Telegram” from Moscow in 1946 gave rise to America’s containment policy against the Soviet Union; and Adm. Hyman Rickover, who developed a reliable nuclear reactor that would fit in a normal ship’s engine room; and Adm. Arleigh Burke, who decided in 1956 that all new submarines would be nuclear propelled. Recounting the blockade of North Korea’s ports during the Korean War, the development of the Polaris and Sidewinder missiles, the Suez Crisis, and the nuclear submarine Nautilus’s transit underneath the North Pole, among other events, Hornfischer enlivens the proceedings with sharp analysis and lucid prose. This impressively researched and thoroughly accessible account fires on all cylinders. (May)